The Conical Glass: February Reading

Sunday, March 01, 2009

February Reading

I read a lot of books last month!

Hallie Ephron, Never Tell A Lie - This is a shoo-in to be nominated for the Mary Higgins Clark Award next year. I borrowed this book from my friend Janet R. after seeing a review that said it was a great airplane read, and I read most of it on my flight to Florida. Recommended if you like fast-paced, not-too-scary suspense thrillers.

B.M. Gill, The Twelfth Juror - Read this for my book group. It's about a man who winds up on a jury for a murder trial even though he really shouldn't be there due to a major, major conflict of interest. The book takes place in the U.K. and of course those of us with extensive jury duty experience stated confidently that he would have been found out in a heartbeat during voir dire in an American trial.

Laura Lippman, Hardly Knew Her - Short stories, brilliantly written, but if you pick up this book, I would recommend not reading them one right after the other, because you might start to detect a certain sameness to them. Sure to convince you that murder might actually be a viable option to solve your problems and personality conflicts.

Henning Mankell, The Pyramid - Five stories by the master of bleak, bleak, bleak Swedish crime writing, giving readers insight into his Kurt Wallander character by showing him at different stages in his professional life. I don't have the language skills to read a book this long in Swedish, but the translation by Ebba Segerberg is so seamless and beautifully done that you forget you're reading a book that was originally written in a different language.

Karin Alvtegen, Missing - Another Swedish book, originally published in translation in the U.K. a few years before the American edition came out, and I was constantly distracted by the British-isms employed by the translator. Still, a unique, tightly-plotted crime novel about a homeless woman who must clear her name when she is suspected of being a serial killer, a task made harder by her position on society's fringes. Interesting note: Alvtegen is the grandniece of Astrid Lindgren, the creator of Pippi Longstocking.

Larry Wilmore, I'd Rather We Got Casinos and other black thoughts - If you love him on "The Daily Show," where he is the Senior Black Correspondent, you won't want to miss his book, which is absolutely hilarious and made me laugh out loud numerous times. One nitpick: there's a chapter titled "How Come Brothas Don't See UFOs?" (excerpted here). As a huge UFO nerd during my teenage years, I must correct Mr. Wilmore: perhaps the most famous UFO abduction of all time involved a brotha, er, African-American man, Barney Hill, and his Caucasian wife Betty. Interestingly, one of the theories about the abduction on the Hills' Wikipedia page is the following: "Psychiatrists reportedly later suggested that the supposed abduction was a hallucination brought on by the stress of being an interracial couple in early 60s America." I was actually pretty disappointed that I was out of town when Wilmore came to the Bay Area on his publicity tour so I could not share with him the story of Barney Hill, but then again, maybe it's for the best that I did not. 'Cause, you know, it's a book of humor.

Vicki Myron with Bret Witter, Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World - Do you like cats? Do you like libraries? If so, you've probably already read this book, which has been on the best-seller list for months now. The book is almost 300 pages long and in case you're wondering how anyone can write that much about a cat, well, it's also about Iowa librarian Myron and her difficult life (divorced from her alcoholic husband, she raised her daughter alone and braved breast cancer, among numerous other health problems) and the changes, both good and bad, that took place in northwestern Iowa during her years there. The highly intuitive Dewey, who was abandoned as a kitten into the library's book drop, became, in a way, Myron's best friend and helped her survive hard times. Meanwhile, he attracted fans and followers from all over the world -- even a Japanese film crew, which came all the way from Tokyo to shoot footage of Dewey. I enjoyed the book, despite being a dog person, and found the material about Myron and the town of Spencer to be as interesting as the cat anecdotes. It gave the book a bit more gravitas. Since Dewey has been so successful, it wouldn't surprise me if Myron turns it into a children's book with nothing but cat anecdotes, for those who prefer straight-up reading about felines, without tales of alcoholism, suicide, illness, family farms shutting down, etc.

posted by 125records @ 3:44 PM

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